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Hello, Sharone! I brought my harp and music with me, and also measured the distance from my eye to the music stand. I need three sets of glasses: 1. one set for seeing my music and strings, with a little sliver of farther distance at the top of the lens, 2. one for driving, which is long-distance only, and 3. one for walking around, with long distance at the top and mid-distance in the rest of the lens. As well, I need prism on all my glasses, because I have a slightly turned eye that gives me double vision. My optometrist happens to play the harp, so she knows how important it is to have good vision. I wear the first set for playing in the orchestra. I can see the conductor, though blurrily, but it’s more important to me to see the music.
I’m with Carl on this one. I love bigger fonts for pedal markings, and I also prefer to put my pedals wherever there is room, as long as they’re not above the staff.
I hope they are using the same harp parts that would be in the orchestra score. At the end of Saturn, the harp parts can be re-distributed between the two harps to avoid all the jumping. There are some other adaptations that make it a little easier to play. There are many repetitions of patterns, so cues are essential.
We moved from a house to a condominium two years ago, and were very careful to find one that had good sound insulation. I practise in a room that has no adjoining walls to another condo, and the sound does not seem to travel upwards or downwards at all. I have had no complaints from anyone. Our building is zoned for live/work, so I can teach in my home. If I practised right next to an adjoining wall, perhaps the other condo-owners might hear me. We had a noisy neighbour for a while, and his sub-woofer carried bass notes right into our living room. It is best to look for a concrete building. When we were looking, we had to give up on some otherwise lovely places that were not as soundproof as this one.
The tuning key gliss is meant to be played by sliding the metal part (or the metal part of a screwdriver) along the string. I tried looking up “zitter” but the translation was “aspen” or”vetch”, so maybe slide a piece of aspen wood along the string? No idea.
I found a couple of Youtube videos of this piece https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSgTYITPFCI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI2nEudBT7QMaybe there will be a shot of the harpist’s hands just where you need to see what they’re doing.
Viel Glück, as they say!Dear Tayce,
Thank you! I just went back and looked at this. I see why I thought it was a D. There was no line through the note. But you’re right; it’s a C.
Long skirts can be a real hazard if they are not designed to stay away from your feet, but I find them a lot more comfortable and flattering than pants. As long as the skirt is fairly closely fitted down to the knees, then flares out, it is guaranteed to be pedal-friendly. Empire waists and puffy Gone-With-the-Wind styles are dangerous, because they settle all over the floor when you sit down. Slippery fabrics make you feel like you’re sliding off the bench. If you have to play in a gown that won’t stay off your feet, hike it up in the back and sit on it. And yes, I have found this out the hard way. Speaking of mishaps, I once caught my high heel in the hem of my wide pant leg, and nearly wind-milled right off the stage into the audience.
I got this from Judy Loman back in the 1970’s, when I played with the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra. I don’t know whether Judy still does it this way, but I do.
Look into the syllabi for these courses. They will all have different requirements, so it’s interesting to compare! The main thing is to become a well-rounded musician who can not only play well, but also understand the theory behind it. The ear training and technical requirements are so helpful, too. We have the Royal Conservatory of Music in Canada. Yet another Syllabus to look at!
I have never heard this version. Perhaps she composed it herself? There are various cadenzas floating around for different Russian ballet companies. It is not uncommon for their harpists to be given the freedom to write their own cadenzas as long as they fit in the time provided, stay in the right keys, and don’t confuse the dancers.
Another thing: it is great if you can get your hands on a score before the first rehearsal. There is an incorrect timpani cue, and many of the other cues are not audible, or only give you a partial picture of what is being played.
Since I only have five minutes to re-tune the harp in between pieces, it was taking too long to set up my tuner for each note, so I devised this cunning plan: get everyone to stay quiet, and simply tune to the piano, which is also tuned in E meantone tuning. It worked! It’s a pain, but I would rather not haul another harp from home for this. I also tried an adaptor plug to fit my pickup into the Iphone so I could use my Strobesoft app, but I found that it still wasn’t picking up the notes well unless everyone was quiet.
I discovered that my Strobosoft tuning app has choices which will make it possible for me to do this. If you select Manual instead of Classic, and Hertz instead of cents, then you can tune it to mean intonation. I just need to find a pick-up that will work with my Iphone, so that I can tune when there is noise around me.
